The Distinctiveness of the Criminal Standard of Proof - Part II
Concept
26.06.2025 - 27.06.2025
Part two of the workshop on the distinctiveness of the criminal standard of proof: In criminal proceedings, there is wide consensus that the attribution of liability and the imposition of punishment is dependent on the prosecution being able to prove that the accused is guilty of having committed a criminal offence. Less clarity surrounds the scope, regulation and indeed justification of the degree or level of proof which must be met in order to support a criminal conviction. This lack of consensus reflects variety in the regulation of proof in different national and international legal jurisdictions, disagreements about the scope of the presumption of innocence and other underlying procedural principles, differences in the normative understanding of the purpose of criminal proceedings and differences in the conceptualisation of the epistemic ambitions of criminal proceedings. This workshop sets out to bring inter-disciplinary and comparative perspectives on these issues and to examine the claim that the standard of proof is or ought to be higher in criminal proceedings than in other types of proceedings, such as those involving civil or administrative claims.
The workshop will take place in Zurich. Papers will be circulated in advance and the focus of the workshop will be on comment and discussion.
Programme
Thursday, 26 June 2025
| 09.15 - 09.40 | Tea / Coffee |
| 09.40 - 10.00 | Introduction John Jackson & Sarah Summers |
| 10.00 - 12.00 |
Block 1 Hock Lai Ho, On 'Beyond Reasonable Doubt' as a Standard of Proof Andrew Choo, The Criminal Standard of Proof: Distinctive but of Limited Ambit? |
| 12.00 - 13.00 | Lunch |
| 13.00 - 15.00 |
Block 2 Federico Picinali, Justified Belief as a Standard of Proof? The unsavoury Implications of an Interest-relative Approach Liat Levanon, Can Pragmatic Encroachment Explain the Criminal Standard of Proof? |
| 15.00 - 15.20 | Tea / Coffee |
| 15.20 - 17.20 |
Block 3 Lewis Ross, Proof as a Social Signal Sarah Summers, A Rights-based Justification of the Standard of Proof in Criminal Cases |
| 17.20 - 17.30 | Tea / Coffee |
| 17.30 - 18.30 |
Block 4 Ron Allen, Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt Does Not Exist: Except as an Emergent Property of a Complex Adaptive System |
| 19.00 | Dinner (Ristorante Frascati: Bellerivestrasse 2, 8008 Zurich) |
Friday, 27 June 2025
| 09.00 - 09.30 | Tea / Coffee |
| 09.30 - 11.30 | Block 1
Chair: Sarah Summers Sabine Gless, Evidence & Proof - Ambitions of the Criminal Trial in the Digital Age Jacqueline Hodgson, Losing Sight of the Standard of Proof |
| 11.30 - 13.00 | Lunch |
| 13.00 - 14.00 |
Block 2 Matt Thomason, The Standard(s) of Proof for Proving Preliminary Facts in Criminal Trials |
| 14.00 - 14.30 | Tea / Coffee |
| 14.30 - 15.30 |
Block 3 Dov Jacobs, The Use of Open-source Information (NGO reports, UN reports, etc.) in the context of international criminal law |
| 15.30 - 16.00 | Break |
| 16.00 - 17.00 | David Sklansky, How Should Juries Think About Reasonable Doubt? Commentator: John Jackson |
| 17.00 | Closing Thoughts |
| 19.00 | Dinner (Restaurant Neumarkt: Neumarkt 5, 8001 Zurich) |